Lock for overhead doors



Jan? 28, 1941. .5. F. WREAU LOCK FOR OVERHEAD DOORS 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed March l5; 1957 i Cf,

v INVENT R A 6' encer wreed Lisi@ in ATTORNEY.

Mmm 2&9 194K. S, l; WHEAD v 2,229,909

` Loox FOR OVERHEAJ DOORS Filed March l5, 1.937 v 2 Shee1.s-Shee*fI 2 Patented Jan. 28, 1941 UNITED STATES PATET FFCLE Application March 15,

l0 Claims.

My invention relates to door locks, more particularly to locks for doors such as garage doors of the overhead type.

An object of my invention is to provide a novel door lock which is particularly designed for doors of the overhead type and which d-oors are arranged to move to an overhead position yabout a horizontal axis.

An object is to provide a novel door lock which incorporates a novel bolt adapted to coact with the header or cross member of the door jamb rather than the side members thereof, and fur ther, incorporates a structure in which the operating mechanism. requires only half or less of the f. doors height and thus facilitates the installation of the door lock on exceptionally wide doors.

An object is to provide a novel door lock which incorporates a novel safety device, whereby should the lock be in locking position and the door moved to closed position, no damage may occur either to the door, the door jamb, or to the lock itself.

Another object is to provide a novel door lock, which though designed for large and heavy doors, is so arranged that it may be unlocked with a key with only a nominal efiort, reducing to a minimum, thereby, danger of breaking keys in the lock in the operation of releasing the same from locking position.

Another object is to provide a novel door lock of the above character which may be easily and quickly installed by inexperienced persons and without the requirementof special tools.

A still further object is to provide a novel door 1 lock in which all screws or other securing means for the lock and its associated hardware are inaccessible from the outside of the door.

Y A still further object is to provide a novel door lock which may be readily operated with one hand and which may be easily and quickly locked and unlocked from the inside or outside of the door.

A still further object is to provide a. novel door lock having a compact bolt unit, and a compact handle and locking unit connected solely by a tension member which is capable of being coiled into a small area, thereby providing a, door lock, although designed for large doors, which may be packed into a small space for shipment.

Another object is to provide a novel door lock for overhead` doors that will automatically lock when the door is moved to closed position, and which lock may be released from the inside of the door without requirement of any special device,

such as a key, and which lock may be unlocked 1937, Serial No. 130,898

(Cl. 'l0- 148) from the outside of the door by the use of key means.

Another object is to provide a novel door lock for overhead doors whereby a solid or Unitary outer handle construction is provided that is se cured to the door from the interior thereof, and which has associated therewith an operating lever that is adapted to lock or unlock the draw bo-lt of the locking mechanism for said doors.

Another object is to provide a novel door lock for overhead doors in which the lock or latch means are mount-ed in the inside ci said doors and which means may be operated to unlatch or unlock the same from the interior of said doors, and which may also be operated by key controlled` means for unlatching the same from the exterior of said doors.

Other objects, advantages and features oi in.- vention may appear from the accompanying drawings, the subjoined detail description and the appended claims.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention in some of the forms I at present deem preferable.

Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view of an overhead garage door associated with an opening in a garage, a fragment of which is shown and which door has my novel lock installed thereon,

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary plan View of the bolt structure taken on line fil-2, Fig. 1 with adjacent portions of the door and door jamb shown in section and with the bolt in unlocking position.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional View on enlarged scale and showing the bolt in the position it would assume in the event the bolt was extended to locking position before the door was closed.

Fig. 4' is a front elevational View on enlarged scale of the operating handle and. escutcheon plate taken substantially on line Afl-4, Fig. l and a portion of the door being fragmentarily shown.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken on a plane substantially indicated by line 'lL-l, Fig. 6, showing one form of clogging means with the same moved to open position showing in dotted lines a moved position of the clogging means.

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal sectional View showing the latch holt and handle units and associated parts of the door and header being fragmentarily shown. Parts are broken away to contract the view; and dot and dash lines indicate the parts when in locking position.

Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken on line l-'l, Fig. 6, and showing one type of flogging means and showing in dot and dash lines the parts being moved to locking position.

Fig. 8 is a sectional view of a latch keeper construction of a modied form of ddgging means and on the same plane as indicated in Fig. '7.

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary sectional view analogous to the upper portion of Fig. 6, but showing a modified form of latch means.

The door with which my present invention is particularly designed for use comprises the door proper, designated I, at the sides of which are converging arms 2 joined together at a point slightly above the middle and rearwardly of the door, where the arms 2 are mounted to rotate about a journal 3 fastened to the side of the building 4 or to any suitable support. The door is adapted to swing upwardly and rearwardly in an are to a horizontal position, not shown, above and resting at its lower edge on the underside of the door frame header 5. Suitable counterb-alance means are provided in the form of a spring 6, a fragment of which is shown, and which is connected at its other end to the rafters of the building.

At the top of the door, preferably in the middle, is mounted a bolt unit A. The bolt unit includes a U-shaped housing II of sheet material open at its upper and lower sides and provided with outwardly directed flanges I2 at the extremities of its leg portions which are adapted to receive screws I3 for securing the housing at the inner side of the door with the upper extremity of the housing substantially flush with the upper edge of the door as shown best in Figs. 3 and 6.

Opposite the housing the upper edge of the door is notched to form a channel I4, and in alinement with the channel, the header 5 of the door frame is provided with a socket I5. Journaled at the lower middle portion of the housing I I by means of a pin I6 is a pair of bell-crank levers I'I having upwardly extending major arms I8 reaching to the upper end of the housing and pivotally attached by a pin I9 to the rear end of a cylindrical bolt 20. The bolt is adapted to rest in the channel I4.

In order to hold the bolt 20 in its channel, there is provided a retainer spring 2l which bridges the upper forward corner of the housing. Thus, should the bolt be extended when the door is open and then the door swung closed, the bolt upon contacting the header or other obstruction, as shown in Fig. 3, is free to tilt upwardly; however, upon again opening the door, the retainer spring returns the bolt to its proper position.

The bell-crank levers II are provided with upwardly extending minor arms 22 which receive at a point forwardly of the pin I6 a journal pin 23. To the journal pin 23 is attached one end of a flexible tension link 24 which extends downwardly to the lock and handle unit B, to be described hereinafter. Also attached by one end to the journal pin 23 is a spring 25 the other end of which is anchored in the rear of the housing I I.

In Fig. 9 is shown a modified form of bolt unit A. In this construction, a cylindrical bolt 3I of shorter length is substituted for the bolt 2D. On top of the door I is positioned a keeper plate 32 with its forward edge flush with the forward edge of the door. Mounted on the header 5 above the keeper plate is a latch member 33 in the form of a leaf hinge having leaves 34 and 35 Journaled at their upper ends 36. Leaf 34 is secured to the header, while the leaf 35 normally overhangs the keeper plate, being urged thereover by a spring 31, and limited in its extended position by the head of a retainer pin 38. In operation, the bolt 3| forces the normally overhanging leaf 35 clear of the keeper plate so that the door is free to swing upwardly.

I will now set forth the construction of the handle and lock unit, designated generally by B.

Mounted on the front of the door vertically below the bolt unit A is a handle fitting 4I which preferably is made rugged in construction. The handle 4I is provided at its upper end with a circular escutcheon plate or flange 42 provided with bosses 43 extending from its back side to receive screws 44 that extend thereinto from the inside of the door. Secured in the escutcheon plate is a suitable key operated lock unit 45 having a turnable, key operated blade 46 adapted to extend through the door.

The handle fitting 4I curves downwardly and outwardly from the escutcheon then returns to the door front at its lower end which receives from the back side at its lower end a screw 4I. The upper portion of the handle fitting 4I is provided between the handle and the door with an upwardly directed recess 48 in which is journaled by a pin 49 an L-shaped latch or operating lever 50. One arm of the pivotally mounted lever extends downwardly between the handle element and door to form an operating trigger 5I while the other arm 52 is in the form of a bar of rectangular section and extends through the door to form a latch member or element and locking bolt operating connection. The inner extremity of the latch element 52 is secured to the lower end of the tension link 24.

Held to the back side of the door by means of the screws 44 is a rectangular escutcheon plate 53 formed of sheet material with inturned margins 54 so that the body of the plate is spaced from the door and forms therewith a flat chamber 53'. Journaled near the upper end of the plate 53 on pins 55 is a pair of depending bars 56 formed of flat material and positioned edge to edge and which form clogging means for the operating lever 5I). A spring 51 is hooked around the pins 55 and is provided with extremities which engage the outer edges of the bars 56 so as to force the free extremities of the bars toward each other.

As shown in Fig. 7 the dogging means extend on the opposite sides of the arm 52 of the latch element 5D and their adjacent edges are relieved from a point opposite the arm 52 downwardly to form shoulders 53. When the arm 52 is lowered below the shoulders 58, the dogging means are free to move toward each other to prevent raising of the arm 52 until the bars 56 of the dogging means are spread apart. Inasmuch as the operating lever 5I) is so connected with the bolt 2D as to urge the bolt into engagement with its keeper socket I5 when the arm 52 is lowered, the dogging means 55 serve to restrain the bolt 20 in its locked position.

The structure shown in Fig'. 9 operates in just ther everse of the foregoing arrangements; that is an upward, instead of a downward movement of the arm 52 urges the operating bar 3| against the latch member 35 so as to force the same inwardly to unlock the door. Consequently, as shown in Fig. 8, modified dogging means 6'! may be employed in which their mid portions are relieved to form upwardly directed shoulders 62 arranged to pass under the arm 52 as shown by solid lines to preventl its lowering until the dogging means 61 are spread apart. When the pull on operating trigger 5| is released the tension of spring 25 will pull element 52 upwardly s-o as to cause shoulders 52 to engage the underside of element 52.

Also, as shown in Fig. 5, a further modification of thev dogging means, designated 'Il may be employed. In this case lugs 12 extend toward each other from the mid portions of the clogging means to form upwardly directed shoulders 13 and downwardly directed shoulders lil. With this arrangement either type of bolt shown in Figs. 3 and 9 may be employed.

In the event the dog-ging means as shown in Fig. 5 are used and the type of bolt unit A shown in Figs. 2 and 3 is used, the operation of locking and unlocking the door will be the same as though the construction of the lclogging means shown in Fig. 'l were used. However, if the bar 52 is moved upwardly above the shoulders '53, such movement will act similarly to a dead bolt so that the latching bolt 2li cannot be operated until the element 52 is released. This same advantage of preventing locking of the door will be obtained when the bolt unit A is used and the arm 52 is moved below the shoulders ld.

Regardless of the arrangement of dogging means employed, the operating blade 45 of the key controlled lock unit 45 extends between the bars or arms of the clogging means above the arm 52 so that upon turning of the blade, in either direction, the `bars of the dogging means may be spread apart to release the varm 52 of the operating lever 5I).

In order to open the lock from the inside, there is journaled at the lower end of the escutcheon plate 53 a knurled knob 8| which extends into the plate 53 and is there provided with a double ended spreader lever or cross pin 82 which ts between the bars 53, @I or 'll of the dogging means so `as to spread them when the knob BI is turned in either direction to release the arm 52 of the latch element 59.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the construction shown in Figs. 6 and l does not latch or lock the door when the door is moved to closed position, but provision is made by such construction whereby the door may be locked or unlocked. In Fig. 9 the construction is such that unless the member 52 is held in inoperative position as herein-before described, the door will be automatically latched or locked when the same is moved to closed position.

An advantage in my novel construction is obtained in that the lock construction may be easily and quickly changed to adapt the same for various sizes of a pin tumbler or panacentric type lock as desired, and in the event a lock having a greater diameter is desired to be used than originally intended to be reeived in the flange ft2, the opening through which the lock 45 is mounted may be easily enlarged by a drilling operation.

From the foregoing construction I have provided a door lockfor overhead doors which may be quickly installed at a minimum expense whereby a substantial construction that provides a secure and fully protective lock may be associated with an overhead door and which may be shipped in a compact arrangement due to the exible connection 2li and the simplicity and compactness of the other parts of the lock construction.

A further advantage is obtained by my novel construction of lock unit B in that the clogging means 55 or 6l are pivoted at their upper ends and the gravity action of such means 56 or Bl enables me to use a light spring 5l merely to insure positive action, and by such use of a light spring 5l and the gravity action of the dogging means, breakage of keys is reduced to a minimum because only a slight exertion is required thereon to spread the dogging means apart to release the member 52.

I claim;

l. In a bolt structure for about a horizontal axis offset from the plane of the door, a bolt; means for reciprocating said bolt across the upper edge of said door; and

yieldable means for restraining said bolt to a g displacement of said bolt upon encountering an obstruction; a link extending downwardly from said reciprocating means; a latch element supported by the door and jointed to said link for operating said bolt; and keeper means for restraining said latch element.

3. In a bolt structure for a` door rotatable l about a horizontal axis oiset from the plane of the door, a bolt; means for reciprocating said bolt to locking and unlocking positions; yieldable means for restraining said bolt to a reciprocable movement, said means permitting lateral displacement of said bolt upon encountering an obstruction; an operating mechanism for said bolt carried by the doo-r and including a latch element, dogging means for restraining said latch element; means for engaging said dogging means to release said latch element; and a link operatively connecting said latch element with said reciprocating means.

4. In a bolt structure for doors, the combination with a door and coacting jamb, of a bolt member mounted to move transversely across the edge of the door; and means yieldably restraining said bolt member against lateral movement away from the edge of the door.

5. In a bolt structure for doors: a housing secured to the margin of the door, said housing being open on at least one` side; a bolt extending along said open side; a iixed guide at one side of said bolt; and a restraining means atv the other side thereof yieldably holding said bolt against said fixed guide.

6. In a bolt structure for doors; a housing secured to the margin of the door, said housing being open on at least one side; a bolt extending along said side; a lixed guide at one side of said bolt; a restraining means at the other side thereof yieldably holding said bolt against said fixed guide; a lever` mounted in said housing for reciprocating said bolt; a spring tending to hold said bolt in a retracted position; a tension link extending from said lever; .a handle latch connected with said link; dogging means for restraining said handle latch; and means for releasing said clogging means from said handle latch.

7. In a bolt structure for doors, comprising a housing secured to the upper margin of a door, said housing being open on at least one side; a bolt extending along said open` side; a fixed guide a door rotatable at one side of said bolt; and a restraining means at the other side thereof yieldably holding said bolt against said fixed guide.

8. In a bolt structure for a door rotatable about a, horizontal axis offset from the plane of the door, a housing secured to the upper margin of the door, said housing being open on at least one side; a bolt extending along said open side; a xed guide at one side of said bolt; a restraining means at the other side thereof yieldably holding said bolt against said xed guide; a lever mounted in said housing for reciprocating said bolt; a spring tending to hold said bolt in a retracted position; a tension link extending from said lever; a handle latch connected With said link; latch means for restraining said handle latch; and means for releasing said latch means from said handle latch.

9. In a door lock: a door handle secured to a door and spaced therefrom at its mid portion; a latch lever journaled between the handle and door and having an arm projecting through the door; dogging means mounted at the inner side of the door; yieldable means urging said dogging means against said arm, said dogging means having catch portions engageable to restrain movement of said arm; and key controlled blade means to release said :clogging means from said arm.

10. In a bolt structure for a door rotatable about a horizontal axis offset from the plane of the door, a housing secured to the upper margin of the door, said housing being open on at least one side; a bolt extending along said open side; a fixed guide at one side of said bolt; a restraining means at the other side of said bolt yieldably holding said bolt against said fixed guide; a latch lever positioned at the mid portion of the door at the outside thereof and below said bolt; said latch lever including an arm extending through the door; link means operatively connecting said arrn with said bolt; dogging means mounted at the inner side of the door; yieldable means urging said dogging means against said arm, said dogging means having catch portions engageable to restrain said arm; and means to release said dogging means from engagement with said arm.

SPENCER F. WREAD. 

